Do people still subscribe to the huge neck theory?

[schoolie]

Have any of you noticed that thick necks sound better with light bodies (3-4 lbs) and thin necks sound better with heavy bodies (5-6 lbs)? That's been my experience, but maybe it's just a small sample. I know there are more variables at play here.

 

[rushcentrale]

bigger necks may or may not have sonic benefits. the "benefit" is subjective. however, a lot of a guitar's tone comes from its neck, and there would definitely be noticeable differences between bigger necks and smaller necks on the same guitar.

different neck wood densities and thicknesses will have an affect on tone though. that's not a myth or opinion. it's physics.

 

[falconer]

different neck wood densities and thicknesses will have an affect on tone though. that's not a myth or opinion. it's physics.

I agree. IMO, it's just common sense that the more a neck absorbs or bleeds away string vibration energy, as with the skinny ones, the less is transmitted to the pups.

 

[Ignatius]

I have several Teles, one of which is a mid 90's 52 RI. It has a thinner neck, but it is the most resonant and ringing Tele in the stable.

So I don't really buy the big neck = big tone thing.

 

[rushcentrale]

I have several Teles, one of which is a mid 90's 52 RI. It has a thinner neck, but it is the most resonant and ringing Tele in the stable.

So I don't really buy the big neck = big tone thing.

you can't really reject the "big neck = big tone thing" with regards to your guitar until you slap a bigger neck on that thing and test it out.

i don't think anyone is saying smaller necks give you a smaller tone. it's just that on the same guitar, a bigger neck might be able to give you a bigger tone, or really just a different tone...better or worse depends on the player's taste.

 

[Birdmankustomz]

I'm a little dude (5'10", 145lbs) but I love a huge neck. Old archtop with a huge V-neck, thats the guitar that I'm always looking for. I found the perfect guitar last year but it got away, and I've been looking for one like it since...

 

[Beachbum]

I've got 11 guitars with necks of all shapes and sizes. I don't even think about the difference anymore. I just adapt quickly and move on.

 

[Walter Broes]

the guitar I play most has a fairly skinny neck (an old Guild archtop), but even if I hate myself saying this, my experience has been that guitars with substantial to downright huge necks have fatter sounding treble strings for some reason.
I don't generally fall for typical guitar-myth mumbo jumbo, but I can't deny that every big-necked telecaster I've played had fat sounding trebles - and my Supro Dual Tone, (which my standard Shubb capo doesn't even fit the neck is so big!) has it too - fatter sounding and feeling B and high E strings.

 

[norumba]

i havent really thought about it, i also seem to adapt ok to the three or four guitars i have; Vigier fretless, Samick Greg Bennett LP style, CV50s... but im thinking of having some custom necks done, so i guess i should pull together a spec sheet of what common models have what kind of neck shape, go down to GC and play a bunch of different Fenders to feel what the different shapes are under the hands.

 

[Telemach_1]

It's a question of pers. taste. Most importantly the quality of the wood will be the main factor for how a neck will sound. A small sized neck w. a superior wood quality can sound better than a thick neck and vice versa.
But in my experience and pers. preference a thick neck sounds better than a a smaller one given the same wood quality.
My current Baja neck has a lot more punch than my 69 Thinline RI neck.

On the other hand the Baja neck sounds thin compared to my orig. 63 strat neck which is smaller in dimension.

The playability of a neck is important to me too. A large neck like the Baja gives my rel. big hands a lot of comfort and the spring spacing has a lot of headroom to the edges. The strings won't slip out the board as it sometimes is the case w. other smaller necks in combat.
That's one of the reasons I currently prefer to play the Baja neck equipped Tele over my orig. 63 Strat.

However the Baja neck is a soft maple quality and will take more years to ripe than I got left to live.

 

[chabby]

Whatever came standard with a 1998 MIM Std Tele has been my favorite neck so far and it feels thinner especially depth wise than any tele I've ever owned.
It's a lightening fast neck and facilitates easy full octave bends which is essential to any guitar I play.

 

[Ash Telecaster]

I've been told I have no neck!:neutral:

Redd

I don't buy it. No neck, no vocal chords!


And what do you hang your git off of?

 

[Robbmonster]

I have small hands (VERY small) and my favourite neck is my Squier Affinity Tele neck, which is rather thin.

I have tried playing a Squier CV 50's tele, which has more of a D-profile neck, but I didn't like it nearly as much.

But in truth, the finish applied to the neck matters more to me than the profile.

As for what is better sonically, I have no opinion.

 

[Sharkblues]

I can play any off them with equally bad results.

 

[Ash Telecaster]

I was recently looking at buying the 52RI. I don't know what you call the contour on that guitar but it's a fairly large neck. It felt very comfortable to me. I compared to to the American Standard and Deluxe and found those necks to be fairly thin. They had much thicker fret wire which I think can be an advantage but I was still attracted to the feel of the 52RI neck.

I ended up buying a used 1999 American Standard which has a thicker neck than the current Standard but not quite as thick as the 52RI and it has the thicker fret wire. Again I don't know what the offical descriptor for the neck contour but I find it to be an excellent neck and my favorite over any of my other guitars.

 

[Flatfoot]

I know a player with a huge neck... like 18" size. He's nothing special on the guitar.

Now I don't care who you are.........that's funny!!!

 

[Anchoret]

Back before I left the land of the tele, folks thought there was a big sonic benefit to having a huge neck.

Benefit? Who knows? Difference? Yes, absolutely.

All other things being equal, a bigger neck will have more mass and rigidity, which means that it absorbs and transfers less of the string's vibrational energy when played. This is the same principle on which high-mass bridges work.

This translates to more sustain and more of the fundamental, with a somewhat less complex tone, "bright" v. "woody."

Builders have known this forever.

 

[Jerry2010]

Big fat boatnecks on Teles rule! Moreso than strats. Yup Yup!

 

[Cuco]

Grew up liking a modern C (top), fell in love with a deep U (bottom).

 

[Bill]

Looking at that pic above, you know what would be funny? If the string break angle at the nut, which is sharper on thicker necks, was the cause of the perceived improvement in sustain and tone.